Donal Ryan is the author of three number one bestselling novels and a short story collection. He has won three Irish Book Awards, the EU Prize for Literature and the Guardian First Book Award.

Nessa O’Mahony is a Dublin-born poet. She has published four books of poetry – Bar Talk, appeared (1999), Trapping a Ghost (2005), In Sight of Home (2009) and Her Father’s Daughter (2014).

Jane O’Brien is the director and tour guide for Ennis Walking Tours, a company that has been running very popular guided walking tours of Ennis for a number of years.

E.R. Murray is an award-winning author and short story writer; her novels include The Book of Learning – Nine Lives Trilogy 1, The Book of Shadows – Nine Lives Trilogy 2 and Caramel Hearts.

Martin Doyle edits the books section of The Irish Times in print and online.

June Caldwell worked for many years as a freelance journalist and now writes fiction. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast. 

Ciana Campbell is originally from County Mayo. Ciana studied psychology before beginning a career in broadcasting with RTÉ where she presented a wide variety of programmes in both radio and television.

Sarah Clancy is a page and performance poet from Galway. She is the author of three collections of poetry, including The Truth and Other Stories (Salmon Poetry, 2014), Stacey and the Mechanical Bull (Lapwing Press, Belfast, 2011) and Thanks for Nothing, Hippies (Salmon Poetry, 2012).

June Caldwell worked for many years as a freelance journalist and now writes fiction. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast. 

Ciana Campbell is originally from County Mayo. Ciana studied psychology before beginning a career in broadcasting with RTÉ where she presented a wide variety of programmes in both radio and television.

Seán Rocks presents ARENA, RTÉ Radio 1’s flagship arts, popular culture and entertainment programme which is broadcast at 7p.m. Mon-Fri.

Seán Rocks presents ARENA, RTÉ Radio 1’s flagship arts, popular culture and entertainment programme which is broadcast at 7p.m. Mon-Fri.

Rick O’Shea is a broadcaster with RTÉ, both on Radio 1 and 2FM, and runs Ireland’s largest online book club.

John Connolly was born in Dublin in 1968.  He is the author of almost 30 books, including the Charlie Parker mystery series, The Book of Lost Things, and he.

Liz Nugent worked for many years in Irish film, theatre and television. Her two novels Unravelling Oliver and Lying in Wait were both bestseller.

Mia Gallagher’s novels are HellFire (Penguin, 2006), awarded the Irish Tatler Literature Award 2007, and Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland (New Island, 2016), which was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness award in 2016, and will be published by Head of Zeus in the UK in summer 2018.

Mick Heaney is a columnist, journalist and broadcaster. He has written extensively on cultural affairs for The Sunday Times and The Irish Times, where he is the newspaper’s radio columnist.

Caroline Busher graduated with a first Class Honours MA in Creative Writing (UCD) and is represented by Trace Literary Agency (USA).

In 2001 Roisin Meaney (Kerry born, Limerick based, roots in Clare courtesy of parents) took a year off primary teaching and travelled to San Francisco to write The Daisy Picker, which won a two book publishing deal with Tivoli Books.

Sarah Maria Griffin’s first novel, Spare & Found Parts, will be released in Ireland & the UK in February 2018 by Titan, after a 2016 release in North America by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Gerard Hanberry is an award-winning Irish poet, writer, musician and teacher. To date he has published four collections of poetry and also a biography of the Wilde family, What Our Shoes Say About Us – The Remarkable Wilde Family Through The Generations (The Collins Press, 2011).

Sarah Webb writes for both children and adults. Her Ask Amy Green series has been shortlisted for the Queen of Teen Awards in the UK and the Irish Book Awards.

Michael McCaughan is an Irish author and journalist best known for his work in Latin America.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was born in 1942 in Cork, she is an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and currently Ireland Professor of Poetry (2016-19).

Ré Ó Laighléis discusses his many books in Irish and English. Amongst Ré’s many acclaimed works are such novels as the MÓINÍN-published Hooked, Terror on the Burren, The Great Book of the Shapers, Battle for the Burren, Osama, Obama, Ó, a Mhama!

Jane Urquhart was born in the far north of Ontario. She is the author of eight internationally acclaimed novels, among them The Whirlpool, which received Le prix du meilleur livre étranger in France; Away, winner of the Trillium Award,

Ré Ó Laighléis discusses his many books in Irish and English. Amongst Ré’s many acclaimed works are such novels as the MÓINÍN-published Hooked, Terror on the Burren, The Great Book of the Shapers, Battle for the Burren, Osama, Obama, Ó, a Mhama!

Nuala O’Connor also known as Nuala Ní Chonchúir was born in Dublin, she lives in East Galway. Her fifth short story collection Joyride to Jupiter was published by New Island in 2017; her story ‘Consolata’ from that collection is shortlisted for Short Story of the Year at the 2017 Irish Book Awards.

Ruth Fitzmaurice was born in 1976 and grew up in Co. Louth, Ireland. She was a radio researcher and producer when she married film director and writer Simon, in 2004, and had three children.

Liz Price is a short story writer, originally from Dublin but living in Clare for the past twenty years. She is a member of Inis Creative Writing Group.

Sally Rooney is a writer living in Dublin. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Granta, The Stinging Fly and elsewhere.

Mary Morrissy is the author of three novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey and two collections of stories, A Lazy Eye and most recently, Prosperity Drive.

Andrea Carter grew up in Laois and studied law at Trinity College Dublin before moving to the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal to run the most northerly solicitors’ practice in the country. After ten years, she moved to Dublin to work as a barrister before turning to write crime novels.

Mary O’Donnell is a novelist, short story writer and poet. She has written two collections of stories as well as four novels, among them the highly praised Where They Lie (2014) and The Elysium Testament (1999).

Carlo Gébler was born in Dublin in 1954. His most recent publications (all from New Island) are The Projectionist, the Story of Ernest Gébler, The Wing Orderly’s Tales, a collection of stories told by a prison orderly, and The Innocent of Falkland Road, a novel set in London in the 1960s.

Mary Kenny is an experienced journalist, author and broadcaster working in England and Ireland. She has written for over 30 newspapers and magazines over the course of her career.

Joe Queally is a native of Fanore, Ballyvaughan, North Clare. He comes from a farming background and has a keen interest in local history.

Julie Parsons was born in New Zealand but has lived most of her life in Ireland. She was a radio and TV producer with RTE until her first novel Mary, Mary was published in 1998.

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels and plays have won the Costa Book of the Year Award, the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, the Independent Booksellers Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.